Rogers Online Business Management for the Agriculture Community

Archive for the ‘Time Management’ Category

With the end of the year drawing near I started thinkng about things that I need to do to make the coming year more productive and thought you might be able to use some tips as well. So here are 7 Computer/Technology Ease Your Workload Tips to get you started.

1. Using the software programs on your computer can free up the most time in your day by taking over mundane administrative and sales tasks for you. So you need to get trained on your computer software so that you can take full advantage of it. The few hours you spend in a classroom or taking an online course will reap huge rewards of saved time later on. Check out a great online education center at ed2go.
2. Use a software product where you can keep your appointment calendar, contact list, To Do list, and “Tickle” reminders. I use Microsoft Outlook for these tasks, as well as for sending and receiving email. It’s a great all-in-one tool for the self employed and synchronizes with most PDAs so that you can take your data with you. Again take a look at ed2go for a course on using MS Outlook.
3. Back up your computer, at least weekly, so as not to lose valuable data and files. You can’t afford to re-create your work  if your hard drive should fail. Even though I’d like to think that my desktop and laptop should last forever in reality that’s not going to happen. So I back up both my desktop and laptop once a week.
4. If you can swing the expense buy yourself as a early Holiday present a printer that can automatically print double-sided. It’s amazing how much paper you can save when you print on both sides. I am constantly printing off information and have noticed a significant decrease in my “paper piles” since I’ve been printing on both sides. I’m still trying to work on being “green” when it comes to printing information out but somethings I’ve just got to have in print.
5. Instead of laying cords across your desk, run them under or behind your desk. Try to keep your work space as clear as possible so that you don’t feel like your working in a messy cluttered area all the time.
6. Connect your computer equipment to a surge protector. Not only will it protect your equipment, but you’ll have one central place to turn off all devices at once, at the end of the day. I don’t know about you but I’m not getting any younger and this is one thing that I have always tried to do since they say that you are wasting electricity even when you leave things plugged in. So I was always having to bend down, and crawl under my desk all the time to unplug everything. Well now I’ve put them all on a surge protector and just have to use my foot to switch it all off. Now I only have one plug still in the wall instead of several.
7. Instead of buying a fax machine, which probable means having to pay for another telephone line to support it, consider using one of the fax-by-email services that are available. You will be assigned a fax number, and when someone sends you a fax, it will be converted to a PDF file and emailed to you by the service. I have used two such services in my business, GoDaddy and Callwave, both with success.

Try implementing as many of these ideas as you can and in the coming new year you’ll be finding some extra time (as well as some extra cash) to relax.

Take full advantage of this easy to implement marketing strategy. An email signature tells readers who you are and what you do.

Using a “signature” at the end of all your email correspondence gives the reader important contact information about you and your compay. Your signature acts like an “ad” at the bottom of each message in that you can promote new products and special events.

So you’re saying now, Ok Sue we know about email signatures so what’s the twist?

Well the twist is if you use Outlook for your email messaging you have a very powerful simple way to easily insert reusable content at any point when responding to an email. This great feature is called Quick Parts.

Quick Parts exist both in Outlook and Word, and allows you to save pieces of content to easily re-use, like a seasonal promotion on your farm. Personally I like to use Quick Parts for all those answers that I repeat over and over again, and am tired of re-typing. I also have a few Quick Parts that contain different products I’m selling in my online store.

So how do you create a Quick Part:

1. Type the content that you are going to want to use over and over again. Or if you already have it typed go ahead and select it.
2. Now that the content is selected click on the Insert tab in the Ribbon, choose Quick Parts and then click Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery.
3. Type a name for your Quick Part and tab down to the Category selection. Type in a new category that you want your message to be filed under.
4. Now click OK.

That’s it…You’ve just created a Quick Part!

Now that you have seen how easy it is to create, start creating several Quick Parts to add to your emails. Whenever you want to insert a Quick Part just click on the Insert tab in the Ribbon, choose Quick Parts and you will see a gallery with all your saved Quick Parts.

Click on the Quick Part that you want to insert and it will be inserted at the current cursor position. You can find more advanced options by right-clicking the desired Quick Part.

Let me know how you’re using Quick Parts and I’ll share them in a future post.

Life is like a game of Twister. The more flexible I am, the better I can overcome challenges and succeed!

By being flexible, I can be productive without being overworked. If I wish to break away from tasks on my to-do list to pursue an opportunity, I can! The extra time I allot in my schedule allows me to be flexible at will.

When I am working hard toward my goal and a challenge arises, being flexible enables me to take a step back and seek effective solutions. I can find a way to solve my problems, side step it, or choose a new path.

At times, choosing a new path gets me to my goal even sooner than my original one! This is precisely why I choose to be flexible with my plans.

Being adaptable also helps me in my relationships. Every relationship requires some give and take. When I am flexible, I help my relationships thrive.

Flexibility can even reduce my stress. It helps me get along better with others, thus averting many stressful situations. Rather than increasing my stress by worrying about something, I can be flexible, take new action, and focus on moving forward in any situation.

Today, I strive to be flexible like the tree that bends in the wind but is still there, as majestic as always, after the storm.

 Ask Yourself these Questions: 

1. Can you make your schedule more flexible?
2. How can you be more flexible in your relationships?
3. Can you discover a solution to a current challenge by being more flexible?